


Reconditioning

by Elwethe



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Following Fallen Order, Gen, Hunting Jedi, Inquisitor!Reader - Freeform, Mention of Death, Mention of torture, Psychometry, Reader is an Inquisitor, Reader maybe got Winter Soldiered, Reconditioning, Slow Burn, Twelfth Sister, and what could come next
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-27 01:14:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30114894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elwethe/pseuds/Elwethe
Summary: The Twelfth Inquisitor, assigned to work in the shadows, hunting down elusive Jedi by learning what they can first, but not everything is as it seems. What effect will a certain redheaded Jedi have?
Relationships: Cal Kestis/Reader
Comments: 14
Kudos: 26





	1. First Meetings

Reconditioning.

A threat to keep you in line with your Brothers and Sisters, keep you compliant to orders, keep you laying down the Emperors Will. It was customary every few months to be tested and reconditioned based on what the Grand inquisitor found. It seemed to you that you failed most often, he would search your mind, sigh at what he found and send you down. Whereas your perfect Second Sister with her sadistic eyes almost never went to the Chair.

You always felt raw after leaving the Chair, your mind having been cleansed from any impure thoughts. You knew who your Master was, who you served and what your purpose was, but there was nothing in your memories beyond a few years ago. It had always been like this and that was for the greater good, they said. Better to not know, you were told that your life before was miserable and that your mind was sparing you from those squalid times. Your life’s work now was to track down the traitors who betrayed the Emperor, the man who had rescued you, and raised you up from your pathetic life. Your Brothers and Sisters were the ones he favoured, as told to you by the Grand Inquisitor, you were the selected few he trusted enough to do what needed to be done. 

While the rest of his forces worked to bring order to the galaxy after the devastation of the Clone Wars, you were able to work in the shadows, remove those plotting against him and his benevolence. The remaining Jedi and a few nasty rebellions were the main source of dissonance, and a main focus of your training was learning how to track and bring them to their knees before your Master.

Some Jedi would try to crack your mental armor, those strange beings with soft words and pleas of ‘I know you, come back to the light.’ What light? All you have ever known is the glorious Dark that comforts and pulls you down into its dark embrace when your Master commands it. And what do they mean by telling you that they know you? When those ones end up in the Chair, they stare at you with horror in their faces and you study them, searching your mind for any scrap of knowledge, but only pain comes back, the names are just lines on screens for all the headaches that they give you. The Grand Inquisitor finds it amusing when you do visit them, his golden eyes alight and he seems to think that you are helping his efforts in their conversion. You are pleased to know that you are assisting him in any way, but it is not intentional.

No matter, you have other things to do. He had asked you to disguise yourself as an ordinary Purge Trooper and accompany two of your Sisters to Bracca to investigate an individual using the Force. He confided in you that he was doubting the abilities of Ninth, and Second’s ability to control her.

“Watch and observe, Twelve.” His voice cut through you, making the order clear. “Do nothing to reveal yourself.”

“Yes, my Lord” was all you said.

The suspect Jedi was part of the Scrappers Guild, you had seen the shaky footage from the Probe Droid, but it was not clear as to the exact identity of the Force User. So, you found yourself without your saber, a savage looking rifle in your hands instead. The Purge Troopers had their own transport, separate to the Inquisitors who would make a grand entrance. You were stationed at the doorway to a stopped train, waiting and watching for the Scrappers to emerge. Alert for anything, you kept your eyes hard on the entryway, dismissing the first few excuses for life that walk past you.

Then  _ he _ steps out.

Found.

Recognition of that spark in all Jedi surged through your system, fired up your nerves and settled at the top of your spine, sparking adrenalin through your shoulders. He stops, staring at you, his eyes wide and you sense a reaction in him to you that is beyond what is normal. A headache started to press itself inside your skull, waiting for release.

The moment passes when he blinks and continues on to join the others in a miserable line in the rain. Second’s TIE screams overhead before she lands, and she descends in time with Ninth to look over the damp creatures standing before you. You stand with the Purge Troopers, alert for the verbal cue from Second to intimidate the workers into revealing the Jedi. 

“Is this all of them?” Her elegant voice is low, disbelieving.

“Yes, Second Sister” the commander replies, his gun low and loose in his grip, ready for the signal. Ninth starts to pace, her bulky frame intimidating as she was meant to.

“We seek a dangerous fugitive. This is no common anarchist, but a devotee of the treasonous Jedi Order.” The works shuffle slightly, fear on most of their faces. You study the redhead, his hair dark and flat from the rain. His eyes are downcast, and he could not look more guilty if he tried.

“Failure to turn over this traitor, will result in a charge of sedition.” Second’s voice rises as she steps forward, in her stride now. “Turn yourself in, or everyone present shall face summary execution.” Her voice dragged over the syllables, it took all of you a moment to register the cue she gave, but you all swing your weapons into position at the same time, and the wave of fear washes over you like a balm.

Will he step forward? Or will he hide like the coward that all Jedi are? How were your sisters not reacting to him, he obviously had not learned to shield his emotions well enough, your mental walls were being battered. Were they simply waiting for the opportune moment?

“I, I think it’s time that someone came forward.” The Abednedo next to him stepped towards Second, and sheer terror from the young man almost staggered you in its intensity. You barely paid attention to the rant that the other male went on, he was merely taking a chance to be a distraction, all your senses honed on the trembling Jedi even as your blaster was pointing at the Abednedo’s skull.

“...we’re all just expendable!”

“Yes, you are.” Second timed the execution flawlessly, as she always did. You swing your blaster forward, waiting for the Jedi to react.

And react he did.

With a howled cry, he ignited a blue saber and swung at the seemingly open Inquisitor. She merely ignited her second blade and drawled “Look at this, a lightsaber.” She quickly wrenches her arm around to knock him off balance and Force-shoves him towards Ninth Sister, who was waiting to grab him by the scruff of his neck.

“I found the Jedi!” she crows, holding him over the edge of the cliffside. He looked so small compared to her, but then again, most beings do. He struggled briefly and in doing so, she dropped him.

“Idiot!” Second snarled, “we were supposed to take him in.”

“Oh well” Ninth shrugged carelessly. “Better catch up to that train he landed on then.” She started walking away, back to her ship. Once the transport was in the air, your Sister whirled on the commander and barked the kill order. Only when the remaining scrappers were dead and could not spread rumors of a Jedi, did she stalk to her TIE, suspenseful moments passed before she got the tracking information from your ship in orbit, before setting off in pursuit. 

You huff silently, why could she have not waited to extract the necessary information? Was she really slipping and becoming more impatient than you remembered?

The other troopers around you milled slightly, hesitant as to what they should do now, but you watched the commander, waiting for the order to dispatch off-world and leave this soaked rock of a planet. Shipyards were always busy and this one was no exception. Soon the Guild would come along and squeak about ‘lives lost’ and demand compensation for the loss of income, and the Empire would righteously refuse on the grounds of harboring a traitor.

While you waited, you glanced down at the body of the Abednedo. 

Did you dare?

_ Yes _ .

You felt the pull of the Dark, it wanted you to understand.

Crouching next to the body, you tugged off one insulated glove, and reached out, brushing your fingertips over his chest.

_ Terror, the horrifying sensation of falling from a great height. Seeing my dear friend reach out to me, but what could he do? _

_ Then Cal did  _ something _ , and I slowed, right as a skiff flew under me. Pain from my leg, but I’m alive! What did Cal do? What was that? How? _

Blinking, you clear your eyes and breath deeply for a moment, letting go of that falling feeling into the Dark and swiftly put your glove back on, shielding you from the excess sensation of the world.

Cal.

Interesting. 

Your head hurt.


	2. Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A revelation to the Inquisitors, and a betrayal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, some light torture in this chapter

The flight back to Nur was mostly quiet, Second had caught up with the Destroyer in orbit after a while, her body almost vibrating in fury. She would not say what had happened when she caught up to the Jedi but given that she returned alone and in such a foul mood, he had escaped somehow. There had been too many ships in the atmosphere and on the ground for anyone to confirm which one had scooped him up, if indeed he had been able to get off-world. The commander of the vessel dispatched some squads of some Stormtroopers down to the planet to keep searching for him in case he was still there somehow. Your senses however, told you that he had left and so you melted into the ranks of the Purge Troopers, concealing your identity from your Sister so she would not take her frustrations out on you. She always was the better dueler.

Still, you knew his name. All your training was pushing at you to tell Second everything that you knew, but that would mean revealing yourself, which you were expressly ordered not to do. Well, the Empire will surely put pressure on the guild to give the identity over, since the train and subsequent event, there were now better holos of the young man to further identify him. 

As the ship hurtled through Hyperspace back to Nur, you slipped away from the other Troopers and found an empty office that your senses told you was safe to start your investigating. You powered up the terminal, and pulled up the holo from Bracca, staring at his face to better memorize it. Several hours passed while you plugged into the Holonet, hacking into the Guild databank for all the information that they had on this ‘Cal.’ There was not a huge amount of data, but there was a last name. 

Kestis. 

Something in you liked it. You would have to do more digging once you got back to your equipment on Nur, the Destroyer was lacking in truly sophisticated systems. 

Once you had completed your initial report on this ‘Cal Kestis’ you took your datapad and started the report on your Sisters actions. How Nine did not seem to care if he lived or died, and went against the mission brief. How Second disregarded the other scrappers once he was revealed and lost vital information about him, making your job harder. Some instinct tugged gently at the back of your mind and a strange intrusive notion occurred to you, were all families like this? Bullying and spying and undermining? Of course none of your Brothers and Sisters were related, but had had that bond between you all created to work together for the greater good of the Empire. A strange, warm almost memory came to your mind, of feeling surrounded by people who were working together on something, but there was no malice, no competition… It made your head hurt, so you pushed it away.

Sending that report off on your personal secure channel, you breathed a sigh of exhaustion. You had never locked your shields more tightly than you had today and your mind still felt a touch of the residue from the dead Abednedo’s experience. Falling was a fear of yours, one that your Master was still trying to train you out of, and that sensation kept you from getting any true rest on the journey home. 

The Grand Inquisitor was waiting for you all when you arrived back, Second leading the way down the ramp from the transport. Ninth followed closely, her disgruntled face betraying the dressing down that she had received from Second about her actions. You were in sync with the Purge Troopers, blaster held at the exact height protocol demanded and you were more than ready to get back into your own uniform with your own helmet and own weapon.

He was holding a datapad, his eyes flat as he heard the verbal report from your Sisters. They had obviously concocted a few details on what had happened, such as the Jedi putting up more of a fight than what he had actually done to escape. 

“You know that Twelve disagrees with the assessment of the situation?” He said calmly once they had wound down the report, turning your blood to ice. What was he doing?

Second’s head snapped up at that and Ninth turned to snarl at everyone waiting to be dismissed. 

“Twelve was not there” Second stated, anger under her calm words and you felt her rage wash over your shields. 

“Yeah, we woulda have noticed little Twelve snoopin’ around’ Ninth agreed, forcing a smile into her tone to ease the aggression that came to her so naturally.

“Come here Twelfth Sister” He called out to you. 

Numbness radiates down your spine at the order but you immediately obey, breaking formation with the Purge Troopers to cautiously walk up to them, stopping in parade rest, ready for your Sisters to bite.

“The rest of you are dismissed, Commander, I’ll need your report later. Now, I asked your Sister to watch and report.” He started prowling, circling the three of you and you could feel him rake heavily over your mental shields. Luckily you still had the helmet on, and so he did not see you close your eyes from the pain that that caused. Your headache worsened, threatening to split your skull. Ninth was not so fortunate, she shook her head, letting out a small grunt of pain, Second, perfect Second did nothing.

“You. Lied. To. Me.” The Grand Inquisitor hissed. “And the Jedi escaped.” Silence hung in the air, heavy and it closed up your throat. Anger swirled around you, it was not yours but your Sisters, and you knew that they would take it out on you later. 

“Submit yourselves for reconditioning. Twelve, my office.” He snarled, whirling and stalking away.

“Well, well” Second drawled, turning to look at you. 

“I noticed her, why didn’t  _ you _ say anything?” Ninth growled at her, shifting on her prosthetic leg.

“Like hell you did!” Second bit back, blazing fury temporarily redirected. “Now we’ve got to go to the Chair, and it’s her we thank for it!” She shoved you with the Force, sending you stumbling back before she stormed off, heading for the turbolift. 

“I hope you’re happy” Ninth spat, looming over you, intimidating you with her size. Bullying you into submission.

“He commanded it!” You protest, smarting over the unfairness. He was the one to send you along with them to spy. He was the one who revealed you! She merely huffed at you before lumbering away.

The comm in your helmet crackled to life.

“I am waiting.”

And now an even more perfect moment in a perfect mission. Breathe in confidence and exhale doubt. You did your mission perfectly, it was not your fault that the Jedi got away, not your fault that your Sisters did what they did. Your head throbbed from the pain of the headache.

The Grand Inquisitor’s office was always an intimidating place. Everything was designed to put the visitor there at discomfort with the seats angled just so, the desk just a touch too large, making you feel like a juvenile delinquent. The Pau’an sat at ease in his comfortable chair and waved you to take a seat as well.

His golden eyes glinted at you, daring you to voice your frustration. “Tell me about the Jedi, what have you learned so far?”

“His name is Cal Kestis, he appeared on Bracca five years ago after the Purge. He worked mainly as a rigger and was most often seen in the company of an Abednedo. Kept to himself, no reports of a lightsaber or use of the Force until now.” You stated matter of factly. Continuing your brief report, you laid out the small amount of details that you were able to find out about the elusive Jedi.

The Grand Inquisitor steepled his fingers together in thought. 

“Recommendation?”

“From what I have gathered, he would make a good Inquisitor, a useful pawn for you to mould sir.” You answered, it was a question you had expected and prepared for and after reviewing all the information on him, as well as the experience of his raw power, well, he would be a fine addition to the family.

“I am authorising your use of the Holonet to get everything that you can on him, and I am also authorising your use of selected files from the former Temple Archive on Coruscant.” Pressure grew in your head as he stared unblinkingly at you, there was a distinct sensation of him rifling through your thoughts. Unbidden the thought of families acting like this returned and the look in his eye changed to something unknown, something sharp. “ For now, reconditioning. I sense a disturbance in your thoughts.” He stood, clearly dismissing you as he took up a datapad to find the files for you. Not caring how he had rifled through you mind like it was made from flimsi.

Files from the Archive?

As you headed for the Chair, the thought of those files was enough to stop you from delaying the inevitable. They were precious, retrieved from the clutches of the Jedi by your Master and the Emperor himself and much as you begged to see them, the Grand Inquisitor always denied your requests.

The Chamber was cold and you felt you could still hear the agony of your last stint in here. The standing order was that you remove your gloves and experience what you had gone through last time, a lesson of being more obedient. Your Master was always eager to hear the reports of the feedback, he was fascinated by your talent for perceiving an important moment attached to an object.

Your Sisters were nowhere to be found, it was just you, the tech and the Chair. They simply stared at you, hand outstretched for your gloves. It was only the promise of the Archive Files that moved you to remove them in the end. Hands free, you felt naked, exposed and raw and you hated it, much as you could hate anything.

Stepping into its cruel embrace, your head felt like it was about to split open from the tension of the mission, you would gladly accept the reverberating pain from reconditioning to make it all stop. The electricity crackled almost gleefully as the panels lifted into place. 

Then you become one with the pain and your screams echo into nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for the support, please leave a heart if you're new, feedback is deeply appreciated <3


	3. Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Investigating reveals information, and the confrontation with Second Sister

Your quarters are devoid of anything personal, because you do not have anything personal. Ninth kept various trinkets she took from those that she captured and killed, but you never felt the need, same as Second. Sometimes though, your gaze would lose focus for just a moment and your mind would conjure a room with golden light, filled with various items, the sound of water nearby. The golden room always made your head hurt and your heart ache, and curiously, no matter how many times you had been to the Chair to relearn your place in the pecking order of the Inquisitorius, that vision persisted. 

What your quarters did have though was your intel station. Sophisticated equipment that you utilised to gather information, listen in on targets and compile your reports. As you settled in, the conn lit up with the information that the Grand inquisitor had selected. You took a deep breath to center yourself, rolled your neck on your shoulders to loosen the muscles as much as you could after being in the Chair before you dove in. 

Plugging his name into the files, it returned with a holo of a young boy, grinning proudly while a Lasat titled Jaro Tapal stood behind him, looking solemnly at the holo-taker, but something about it seems familiar. An unsettling sensation so soon after being cleansed, so you take in a deep breath and push it away. Of course he looks familiar, you were currently hunting him. You find that he was assigned to the 13th Battalion during the Clone Wars and that he was assigned to Bracca at the end of the war. A Padawan learner then, barely trained and still looking so innocent, but dangerous enough, being brought up in that cult. There is not a lot of information, but it is enough to compile a profile on what his character was like.

Oh. A climber. What fun.

As the reports come in of his movements, first on Zeffo, butchering his way through the outpost there, then on Kashyyyk in tandem with a terrorist attack on a refinery, you compile each and every moment and feed it all through to Second who absorbs the information with vigor, an awful light in her eyes. You see that this hunt for him is starting to consume her, and an awful, disloyal thought occurs to you that maybe she isn’t so perfect after all, the first of any true thinking you were capable of after being in the Chair.

You authorise the restart of Project Auger, intent on drawing him back out, and taking advantage of the windy Tomb that he had so generously found for you. Several Purge Troopers and their Stormtrooper support were assigned there temporarily, there should not be any long term assignments, his erratic movements suggested that he was searching for something, and the Darkness within you whispered that he would return. You pulled more strings and listened to recordings from fallen troopers helmets and learned he was searching for a holocron, hidden by a Jedi called Cordova. All of the data that you searched through did not give much information but you had been trained to look through the lines of text and you realised that the holocron contained a list of Force sensitive children in the galaxy.

The Grand inquisitor was extremely pleased with that information and so you and your Sister were stationed on Zeffo, ready to react to the news he was coming for the first Tomb that the Empire had discovered. You were only assigned to be there for a week, but something inside you whispered that Second especially would wait as long as it took. 

The Jedi showed up the second day and carved through the outpost in such a way that would almost suggest he was bloodthirsty. Second waited only long enough to predict his pattern of movement and she was off, her footfalls echoing in the hallways. You surveyed the process from the office you had been holed up in, watching the security feed from both her helmet and some cameras as you both waited for him to arrive. You had your own mission to begin if your sister failed in hers.

Second was testy, impatient and wanting blood, smarting over the implication that she would fail. You were watching from the security feed that showed him learning to navigate the various ziplines. They were silent, you could see him talking with a small droid that perched on his back, but you were not fluent in lip reading, you had no idea what he was saying. 

Kestis was not slowed by the squads at all, the Purge Trooper was the only one to delay him for a while but he too fell to the Jedi’s lightsaber. Everything was fed through to Second, and eventually she snapped at you, saying she could see him and to not be such a pest, distracting her.

The two of you watched as the platform descended, bringing him closer to his fate. Kestis’s shock at seeing her wore off and he sank into a defensive stance, showing he was more confident, he had obviously practised using his saber, no longer blindly charging in in a fit of rage and he actually landed some hits as well, almost holding his own, but just as she had him properly subdued, that blasted droid blocked her from finishing him off. Interesting, the thought occurred to you if he was properly trained, that rage channeled correctly would be devastating.

“You’re learning. Not quite as gifted as Cere’s last apprentice, but not bad.” she complimented him, pacing in front of the barrier.

“You’ve been keeping count.” He sounded sullen, angry at her.

Who was this Cere that Second mentioned? She had never said the name to you before.

“I’m surprised she didn’t tell you. Cere was never good at keeping secrets.”

“And you know her so well huh?” he taunted, made bold by the conversation and lack of imminent death.

Second laughed. “She was weak. Cracked in an Imperial torture chair. Surrendered the location of her naive Padawan. They would have never found me-” 

The feed cut off as her helmet was removed.

Wait.

Wait wait wait. Second had been a Jedi Padawan? 

Why did you not know this?

Frustrated by the lack of knowledge and being out of the loop, you snarled at the terminal that had no information on this ‘Cere.’ . The basic terminal should allow you access to the files you need, such as who exactly this Cere was that they had discussed. Your fingers flew over the controls, demanding the information.

But there was nothing. 

Your head hurt.

But there was no time to investigate further as Seconds voice cut through your mind like a knife as she barreled into the office. 

“Get me that communication, the second he makes contact, I want it!”

Training took over, tamped everything that was you down and focused on the order at hand. Scan for transmissions and eliminate all that were not Empire. There! Second acted instantly on her end, slicing into the link and routing it to her console. 

“I found it, but… Cere why didn’t you tell me?” he sounded almost lost and he was hurting.

“Because she’s a liar” Second smiled into the comm, pleased to toy with her prey.

“You, how?” 

“I rerouted communicated the moment you tried to contact her.” she drawled, boasting. “Slicing encrypted transmissions was always a pastime of hers, she taught me once.” She let her anger gain control for a moment, baring her teeth. “ There’s no technique Cere has that I haven’t perfected.”

The line ended on Kestis’s end, there had been sounds of water and footsteps, he was clearly on the move, trying to reach the tomb before your troops did. Too late. Mapping the stone structure from the surface, it had been discovered a while ago, and there were troopers searching through the damp muck for anything useful. She continued to taunt him, trying to provoke rage in him again to cause him to slip, while you headed off on your mission. Second did not see you go, her burning eyes were trained on the comm station in front of her. 

Up to the surface, navigate through the tunnel and down the stream. Pulling the Dark to you, you bent it to your will and enhanced your jump as you launched yourself over the chasm, up past the ice then jump again, following the signal that had been rerouted, breath coming easily in your chest, cold clean air filling your lungs. This was what you were built for, hunting and moving quickly to execute your Masters will. The handy shortcut through the rock had been lit by someone and soon you were passing through the village which housed the Stormtroopers who were stationed there. Spying the bodies on the ground, you amended your thought to the past tense.

Taking the slightly longer route now, you slip past the gate and see his ship that was your end goal. There was not any sign of movement on the ground that you sensed, and so you kept focus on the wide cockpit as you slunk to the back of the ship, avoiding the snow-melt on the ground that could give you away. You were on full alert and you felt that time was moving excruciatingly slow as you made your way to where the landing struts were. Pulling out the tracker that was hidden in your sleeve, you made quick work of attaching it where the ship’s sensors would not locate it. The tracker was not advanced enough to track through hyperspace, but when the ship resurfaced in real space, it would activate and ping the Inquisitorius.

Now the Empire would know where these traitors hid when they were not sabotaging refineries, looting tombs or tracking down lost holocrons.

**Author's Note:**

> Thought I would try my hand at an Inquisitor Reader! Please let me know what you think, feedback is always welcomed!


End file.
